We do still live in a hot soup world, when it comes to nutrition—or at least we want to. Citations to the importance of soup in the diet include, without limitation by any means, Chaloner, Jack, “How Soup Can Help You Lose Weight,” BBC News Magazine, 26 May 2009; and Zhu, Yong et al., “Soup consumption is associated with a lower dietary energy density and a better diet quality in US adults,” British Journal of Nutrition, vol. 111 no. 08, April 2014, pp. 1474-1480, just to name two. Few if any countries or cultures do not have a central, signature hot soup as an essential element of the local cuisine. Many restaurants in the United States will answer their morning telephone calls with a bold report of the “soup of the day” instead of a more standard greeting. A gift of hot, homemade soup is the gold standard gift for any sickroom visit, and “chicken soup” as a concept appears in print far beyond recipes to the point that allusions to it in wellness publications, self-help literature and serious works of philosophy are extensive and beloved. One need not consult a former Campbell's (brand) advertising campaign to know that—soup is good food.
Notwithstanding the extraordinary popularity—and ubiquity—of soup, daily soup making in the kitchen is a challenge for anyone. Although there are some labor saving tools available to the commercial kitchen and, to a lesser degree, to the home cook, basic stock preparations have not changed much if at all since earliest culinary histories were recorded. Even with increased pressure equipment and cleverly processed additives, soup making still takes time—lots of it. In the day-in-day-out milieu of our lives, therefore, we tend not to make much daily homemade soup in our own kitchens and, except for a working lunch at one's desk, we tend to eat soup less than our parents and grandparents did (with the exception of the occasional, leisurely meal or special occasion). Soup not only takes time to prepare, it takes time to cool and time to consume. Accordingly, for students, or people who work outside the home, or people who work in the home, and therefore basically everyone, our on-the-run events that tend away from soup include breakfast, getting ready for work or school, after school arts or sports programs, after work social or business occasions squeezed into the day between work and evening or family obligations; overnight infant or child care, adult or elder nursing or occupational care, and the list goes on and on. During these times nutritional intake customs are generally somewhat to extremely informal for many or most of us. These customary menu items are well known and include cold, room temperature or quickly reheatable foods such as sandwiches, protein bars, fruit or vegetable smoothies, salads, (mainly leftover) soup, and of course the common American meal substitute menu items such as pizza and burgers, cheese with crackers, raw vegetables, canned, frozen or dehydrated convenience foods and so forth. For those who work consistently to improve their dietary intakes to reduce sodium and fat and to moderate calories relative to nutrients, fiber and protein, a common goal is to emphasize raw fruits and vegetables and their prepared counterparts, namely fruit- or vegetable-containing porridges such as oatmeal, salads, and blender beverages and smoothies, in favor of other higher fat or higher salt possibilities. “Just-made-now” homemade or restaurant soup has therefore not often been practical to include on this list of at-hand healthy foods, due to the time element alone.
A need therefore remains for a paradigm-shifting invention that makes it possible for us easily to consume the nutritional equivalent of just-made soup, when we have no time for traditional soup-making or consumption, ideally while consuming other essential nutrients directly from the fruit and vegetable and maybe also grain, dairy and other nutritive sources that we all try to emphasize in a healthy daily diet. If possible, the answer to such a need would be a product that requires no further cooking or preparation, has superlative shelf stability, and is versatile enough to combine with virtually any other menu offering of food, beverage or nutritional supplement. In the best of all possible worlds, such a paradigm changing invention would be extremely high in protein without being gritty or otherwise unpleasant to the palate.